Posts Tagged ‘Arabia Saudita’

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s new prime minister spoke to the Palestinian president on Sunday for the first time since taking office, telling him that he seeks close cooperation to drive peace efforts forward.

Talk of cooperation alone, however, is unlikely to satisfy the Palestinian leadership, which wants Israel’s new government to make an unambiguous endorsement of the idea of an independent Palestinian state.

While repeatedly saying he wants peace with the Palestinians, Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to support the internationally backed idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel since taking office as premier on March 31.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Only a year ago, this country’s government was being vilified as a dangerous pariah. The United States and its Arab allies mounted a vigorous campaign to isolate Syria, which they accused of sowing chaos and violence throughout the region through its support for militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

Today, Syria seems to be coming in from the cold. A flurry of diplomatic openings with the West and Arab neighbors has raised hopes of a chastened and newly flexible Syrian leadership that could help stabilize the region. But Syria has its own priorities, and a series of upheavals here — including Israel’s recent war in Gaza — make it difficult to say where this new dialogue will lead.

It is not just a matter of the Obama administration’s new policy of engagement. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France led the way with a visit here last September. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was said to be furious at the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, welcomed him warmly in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, this month. Photographs of the two men smiling and shaking hands have been on the front pages of all the major Arab newspapers, along with frequent headlines about the “Arab reconciliation.”

At the root of these changes is Syria’s alliance with Iran. Saudi Arabia and the other major Sunni Arab nations once hoped to push Syria away from Iran through isolation, and now — like President Obama — they appear to be trying sweeter tactics. For the Syrians, the turnabout is proof that their ties with Iran are in fact useful, and accord them an indispensable role as a regional broker. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries “have great stakes in maintaining good relations between Syria and Iran, because at difficult times they will find Syria helping them,” said Faisal Mekdad, Syria’s vice minister of foreign affairs, during an interview here. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT // Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed said he had positive discussions with Hillary Clinton about Iran and a deal to share nuclear energy technology in their first meeting since she was appointed US secretary of state. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

The US envoy has also visited Egypt, Jordan and Israel and held talks with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

Amman talks

Earlier on Saturday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II met Mitchell in Amman and urged Washington to resume its efforts to clinch a two-state settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

King Abdullah II said after the meeting that he “insisted very serious negotiations should start on basis of a two-state solution as soon as possible.”

It’s important not to lose time, and to move immediately to resume talks,” Abdullah said, according to a statement issued by the royal palace.

The Jordanian king said the negotiations should be based on international agreements and incorporate the Arab peace initiative as the means to “ensure security for all in the region”.

The peace plan, proposed by Saudi Arabia, offers Israel collective Arab recognition in exchange for withdrawal from territory it occupied in the 1967 war, the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, and a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.

Israel has said the initiative could be a starting point for discussion.

The US Middle East envoy has arrived in the Saudi capital on the final leg of a regional tour aimed at reviving peace efforts, the Saudi official SPA news agency has reported. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that he will not hold reconciliation talks with the rival Hamas group unless it accepts his authority, lowering chances the two sides will work out their differences any time soon.

Egypt has been pushing for reconciliation between the rival Palestinian factions, which could be a key step in opening the Gaza Strip’s borders and producing a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel.

But the exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, directly challenged the PA president’s power Wednesday, saying the group of Palestinian factions led by Abbas – known as the PLO – “in its current state is no authority.”

“It expresses a state of impotence, abuse and a tool to deepen divisions,” Mashaal told a rally organized in the Qatari capital of Doha.

The PLO is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinians and is dominated by Abbas’ Fatah faction. Hamas has refused to join the PLO, and Mashaal said Wednesday he was working to create an alternative structure to include all Palestinians.

“I say clearly there will be no dialogue with those who reject the PLO,” Abbas said at a Palestinian gathering in Cairo. “They (Hamas) must recognize in no hidden terms and without vagueness that the PLO is the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, then there can be dialogue.”

He called the attempt to replace the PLO with a new organization a “destructive” project.

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Redeineh said Hamas officials “have to recognize the PLO as the sole representative, with all its commitments and its obligations.”

That includes committing to Israeli-Palestinian peace and a two-state solution, which Hamas has rejected.

The rivalry between the two sides deepened after Hamas’s violent takeover of Gaza from Fatah in 2007.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said Abbas’ statement “aborts all Palestinian, Egyptian and Arab efforts aiming to make a Palestinian national dialogue a success.”

“We hold (Abbas) totally responsible for the repercussions of these statements, which deepen the internal rift,” said Barhoum in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

Hamas and Fatah have disagreed about power sharing within the Palestinian territories and relations with Israel. But Abbas has not previously demanded that Hamas recognize the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people as a precondition for reconciliation talks.

The new demand could make it more difficult for Egypt to broker a deal between the two sides. Hamas officials are expected to meet with Egyptian mediators Monday, while Abbas and Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal are scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt has been trying to mediate a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel to replace a fragile cease-fire that halted the Jewish state’s three-week offensive against Gaza about two weeks ago. Egyptian officials have expressed hope they could forge a long-term truce by the end of this week and reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah by the end of February.

But negotiations over the truce have snagged on the issue of Gaza’s borders. Hamas has said it will only agree to a long-term cease-fire if Gaza’s crossings are opened. But Israel does not want Hamas to have control over its borders, worried that the group will use the opportunity to smuggle additional arms into Gaza.

Egypt has proposed opening the crossings on the basis of a 2005 agreement brokered by the US that puts Abbas’ people in control of the borders, with European monitors deployed to prevent smuggling. But Fatah has no control in Gaza, and any such deal would require some form of reconciliation with Hamas.

But Hamas has said negotiations over Israel’s Gaza offensive should not be tied to the issue of Palestinian reconciliation.

Abbas on Sunday accused Hamas of stalling in its response to Egypt’s mediation proposal and said the group has reduced the Palestinian cause to an “issue of crossings.”

The recent invasion of Gaza is likely to have an impact on Barack Obama-Israel relations, both for good and bad.

Hamas’s provocative attacks made it very difficult for Jerusalem not to respond. The government, through Egypt, tried on several occasions to convince Hamas to stop attacking southern cities. But that failed, as did the siege of Gaza. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN — Relations between Arab nations and the United States hinge on American leaders living up to their rhetoric about commitment to lasting peace in the Mideast, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal told CNN Saturday. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

The Arab summit in Doha last week was intended to unite the Arab states in condemnation of Israel and begin diplomatic moves against it. But with Egypt and Saudi Arabia absent from the gathering and actively lobbying other Arab heads of state not to attend, the summit turned into a rally for the pro-Iranian bloc, in which Qatar looked like merely a constituent member.

The summit, and the response of major Arab states to it, offer clear evidence as to the extent of the current polarization in the Arab world. They also indicate the effect that Operation Cast Lead has had on the direction of regional events. Leggi il seguito di questo post »

The deeply divided Arab League failed on Tuesday to come up with a plan to reconstruct the devastated Gaza Strip and could not agree on whether to back Egyptian peace efforts to end the crisis.

The violence in Gaza has split Arab countries into two camps – one supporting Hamas and the other – mainly Egypt and Saudi Arabia – hoping to lure the Palestinian terror group toward moderation. The political division could affect the stability of the fragile cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, which was in its third day Tuesday. Leggi il seguito di questo post »